The Great Jersey Pumpkin: Big Joe digs in

You can always tell when October has arrived here in New Jersey. The leaves start changing, the Halloween decorations come out, and suddenly there’s a pumpkin on just about every doorstep in the Garden State.

You’ll see pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkins sitting on front porches, pumpkins at farm stands, and, of course, pumpkins eventually ending up in pies on our Thanksgiving tables.

a field filled with lots of pumpkins on top of grass

But how much do you really know about the Jersey pumpkin?

Well, Big Joe is here to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about the great Garden State pumpkin!

According to agricultural information from Rutgers University, pumpkins are grown on more than 2,500 acres of New Jersey farmland, producing thousands of tons of pumpkins every year, that’s a lot of pumpkins!

New Jersey is also a significant pumpkin-producing state, with our farmers supplying pumpkins for both the fresh market and retail sales. Think about that the next time you’re walking through a pumpkin patch.

That little orange guy you’re picking out for your front porch is part of a pretty big Jersey agricultural business, and nationally, the numbers get even crazier.

About 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are grown in the United States each year.

1.5 BILLION pounds—with a B!

Then there are the monster pumpkins. The world record pumpkin has weighed more than 2,600 pounds!

Two thousand six hundred pounds!

How many pies would that big boy make? You wouldn’t need a pie plate, you’d need a small stadium

bunch of pumpkin

So why pumpkins at Halloween?

What made the pumpkin such a big part of Halloween and eventually such a big part of our Thanksgiving table?

First, here’s a little pumpkin trivia: the pumpkin is technically a fruit, not a vegetable, and while we associate pumpkin with Thanksgiving today, the popular image of the Pilgrims sitting down to a big Thanksgiving dinner with pumpkin pie is probably more folklore than fact.

Pumpkins and other squash were certainly available to early colonists, and pumpkins were eaten in a variety of ways. But the pumpkin pie we know, and love today wasn't exactly sitting there next to the turkey and mashed potatoes.

Here's another interesting connection: pumpkins were also used to make beverages, including early forms of pumpkin beer.

Apparently, even back then, people knew you could do more with a pumpkin than just carve the hell out of it!

jack o lantern on brown dried leaves

How did the jack-o’-lantern get started?

The tradition of carving pumpkins goes back centuries. The story traces back to Irish folklore and the legend of Stingy Jack, a notorious trickster who supposedly fooled the devil and was condemned to wander after death.

The Irish originally carved turnips and other root vegetables into frightening faces and placed them near doors and windows to ward off Jack and other evil spirits.

When Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were much easier to carve, and a whole lot bigger! That's how the pumpkin eventually became the superstar of Halloween.

Today, every October, millions of people take a perfectly good pumpkin, cut a hole in its head, scoop out its insides and put a candle in it and it has become a family tradition!

person holding table knife about to slice pancake

And then there’s pumpkin pie...

Of course, you can't talk about pumpkins without talking about pumpkin pie.

Comedian Lewis Black once had a great observation about pumpkins:

“Why is it when you cut into a pumpkin it smells like crap but yet it makes a tasty pie?”

You know what? He’s got a point! You open up a pumpkin and it smells like an old pair of sweaty running shoes, not that I would know what running shoes smell like. But somehow, add some sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little whipped cream—and suddenly everybody wants a piece!

shallow focus photography of orange pumpkins

So this October, when you’re picking out a pumpkin for the front porch, carving your jack-o’-lantern or getting ready for Thanksgiving, take a moment to appreciate the humble Jersey pumpkin. It's part of our agricultural heritage, a Halloween tradition, a Thanksgiving favorite, and, apparently, a pretty damn versatile fruit.

You can carve it, cook it, bake it, and drink it.

That's my Big Joe Guide to the Jersey Pumpkin. Now go get yourself a pumpkin, and make sure you get one big enough to make New Jersey proud!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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